The Dreamlands is a fictional location in the Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft. It is also the setting for a number of pastiches written by other authors.

The Dreamlands is a vast, alternate dimension that can be entered through dreams, similar to astral projection. Experienced dreamers are among the most powerful inhabitants of the Dreamlands and may become its permanent residents after their physical deaths.

To reach the Dreamlands, a sleeper must find an unusual stairway in a conventional dream and walk down the Seventy Steps of Light Slumber to face the judgment of powerful gatekeepers named Nasht and Kaman-Tha. If judged worthy (that is, able to survive the dangers of the Dreamlands), the dreamer is allowed to descend the Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber and emerges in the Enchanted Wood. When entering the Dreamlands this way, the person leaves his or her physical body safely in the waking world. If the dreamer is killed during his or her travels, the person's corporeal body will suffer only a shock. Sometimes, however, this can be fatal — dream death of this kind makes return to the Dreamlands impossible. Waking up causes a person's dream self to disappear; thus the individual may have difficulty recalling anything learned or experienced while asleep (similar to conventional dreaming).

The Dreamlands can be entered in other ways, including physically. This usually requires passing through very dangerous areas of both the waking world and the Dreamlands. Consequently, real death becomes a risk. However, the visitor does receive the prolonged lifespan of a native of the Dreamlands, so the traveller's time there is no longer limited to the duration of a night's sleep on earth.

Though the term Dreamlands typically refers to the dimension accessible by human dreamers, other inhabited planets may have their own dreamlands. Reaching these other realms from the terrestrial Dreamlands is possible but difficult.

Time flows at a different rate in the Dreamlands — each hour on earth represents a week or more there. Consequently, a traveller can spend months in the Dreamlands during a single night's sleep on earth. Fortunately for dreamers, inhabitants of the Dreamlands are either long-lived or immortal, provided they avoid injury or disease.

Despite its accelerated time, the Dreamlands rarely experiences change. Its geography, politics, and population remain fairly static. Dreamers, however, can exert great change over the topography, such as by creating entire cities with accompanying populations.

The Dreamlands has its own pantheon known as the Great Ones, but they resemble powerful immortals rather than true gods because ordinary humans can wound, deceive, and seduce them. They are evidently presided over by some aspect of Nyarlathotep, the avatar of the Outer Gods. Otherwise, the rest of the deities of the mythos, who figure prominently in Lovecraft's other writings (such as the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods), have little interest in or influence over the Dreamlands.

The Dreamlands is divided into four continental regions, each named for its cardinal direction.

• The West is the most well-known region of the Dreamlands and is probably the most peopled as well. It is where dreamers emerge from the Steps of Deeper Slumber. The port of Dylath-Leen, the largest city of the Dreamlands, lies on its coast. The town of Ulthar, where no man may kill a cat, is also located here. Other important cities are Hlanith (a coastal jungle city) and Ilarnek (a desert trade capital). The land of Mnar and the ruins of Sarnath are found at the southern border. The Enchanted Wood of the zoogs is also found here. It joins the South.

• The South is the southern coastal region of the continent shared by the West along with the islands of the Southern Sea, including the isle of Oriab, the largest. The South's land-locked regions and its coastal areas are known as the Fantastic Realms, because they contain nightmarish and sometimes incomprehensible zones. Otherwise, the islands of the Southern Sea are fairly normal.

• The East is a continent that is largely uninhabited, except for Ooth-Nargai. The city of Celephaïs is the capital of Ooth-Nargai and was created from whole cloth by its monarch King Kuranes, the greatest of all recorded dreamers. Beyond Ooth-Nargai are The Forbidden Lands, dangerous realms into which travel is interdicted.

• The North is a cold, mountainous continent notorious for its Plateau of Leng, a violent region shared by man-eating spiders and satyr-like beings known as the "Men of Leng". The North also has a number of friendlier places, such as the city of Inganok, famous for its onyx quarries. The deepest reaches of the North are said to hold Unknown Kadath, the home of the Great Ones.

In addition to these regions, the Dreamlands has a few other locales that defy conventional description.

• The Underworld is a subterranean region that runs beneath the whole of the Dreamlands. Its principle inhabitants are ghouls, who can physically enter the waking world through crypts. The Underworld is also home to the gugs, monstrous giants banished from the surface for untold blasphemies. The Underworld's deepest realm is the Vale of Pnath, a dangerous lightless chasm inhabited by enormous unseen beasts called bholes. Bholes are likely the ancestors of the Dholes of Yaddith.

• The Moon has a parallel in the Dreamlands and is inhabited by the dreaded moon-beasts, amorphous frog-like creatures allied with Nyarlathotep. Interestingly, it is possible for a ship to sail off the edge of the Dreamlands and travel through space to the moon.

The Great Ones are the "weak gods of earth" that reign in the Dreamlands. They are protected by Nyarlathotep.

This table is organized as follows:

• Name. This is the commonly accepted name of the Great One.
• Description. This entry gives a brief description.
• References. This field lists the stories or other sources in which the Great One makes a significant appearance or otherwise receives important mention. A simple two-letter code is used (the key to the codes is found here). If a code appears in bold, this means that the reference introduces the Great One.

Kadath or Unknown Kadath is the dwelling place of the Great Ones. It is a gigantic castle found atop an immense cosmic mountain in the Cold Waste.

Kadath is mentioned in other stories by Lovecraft, including "The Dunwich Horror" (1929) — appearing in a quote from the Necronomicon — and "The Other Gods" (1933). In the latter story, Kadath is cited as the place where the gods dwell, but it is inaccessible to mortals because the gods do not want to be bothered.

Other appearances

• Kadath is referenced in the H.P. Lovecraft Tarot Deck as card five in the Suit of Artifacts ("The Guardian of Kadath") and as card nine of the Suit of Sites ("Kadath").

• Kadath was a heavy metal band that played briefly in Oklahoma City.

Zoogs first appeared in the novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft. They are small, brown, elfin, and rodent-like and live in the Enchanted Wood. Zoogs keep secrets well and have knowledge of many obscure and forgotten things. They sup on fungi but have a taste for human flesh; few who enter their forest ever leave. In their visits to earth, they have spawned many sub-races of creatures that vaguely resemble them but usually have much more benevolent habits.

In The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, the zoogs went to war with the cats of Ulthar. The cats eventually defeated them and thereafter established a truce.

The following Lovecraft stories either take place in or make reference to the Dreamlands:

• "Polaris" (1918)
• "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" (1919)
• "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" (1919)
• "The White Ship" (1919)
• "The Cats of Ulthar" (1920)
• "Celephaïs" (1920)
• "The Other Gods" (1921)
• "Hypnos" (1922)
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926)
• "The Silver Key" (1926)
• "The Strange High House in the Mist" (1926)
• "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (1932)

• Dreams of Terror and Death: The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft

• Harms, Daniel (1998). "Dreamlands". The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (2nd ed. ed.). Oakland, CA: Chaosium. pp. 89–91. ISBN 1-5688-2119-0. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)